Michael Deaver, 69, Dies; Shaped Reagan's Image

Michael K. Deaver, who arranged some of Ronald Reagan’s most memorable photographic backdrops for public consumption and privately gave the president blunt, sometimes contrarian advice, died yesterday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 69.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, his family said.

Mr. Deaver was widely known for creating photo ops that showed Reagan atop the Great Wall of China, at the cliffs of Normandy and filling sandbags to show concern after a Louisiana flood. And he played a central role in planning Reagan’s funeral in 2004; the last visual was burial as the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

Less well known was that he was “one of the people who would speak up to Reagan,” said Lou Cannon, Reagan’s biographer.